Oct
26
2005

going for realism

Today’s Reliable Source gossip column in the Post includes an interesting tidbit about The Visiting, the new Nicole Kidman movie that’s being filmed right now here in D.C.:

The script of “The Visiting” — an alien-epidemic thriller due out next year — called for Kidman’s character to race into the Cleveland Park station, some kind of evil in pursuit, and hop the fare gates to catch a Red Line train.

Not so fast, said Metro — that’s against the rules! So after negotiations between transit officials and filmmakers, yesterday’s shoot included a character newly added to the script: a police officer who says, “Ma’am, you didn’t process your Farecard.”

It was all about maintaining order, Metro explained. “We had to make them say something so people know they’re not supposed to do this,” spokeswoman Taryn McNeil told The Post’s Lyndsey Layton.

Maintaining order? Unless that admonition convinces Kidman’s character to run back and swipe her card, all this demonstrates to moviegoers is that if they hop the fare gates, the result won’t be an arrest, but rather a “Hey! You!” from an ineffectual transit cop. (I’ll spare you the obligatory “arrested for eating a French fry” joke.)

DCist offered this funny-and-oh-so-true suggestion for how the movie producers could add even more realism to that scene:

Now, if they want to be truly realistic, only one escalator would work, and someone would be standing on its left side; the train would be delayed; and someone else would be crowding the center of the rail-car and using available seats for bags, umbrellas, and other personal items. It doesn’t make for a good get-away scene, but at least it’s closer to the truth.

Adding to the tedious realism: Since the Metro is a system where riders swipe their cards on entering and leaving the system, Kidman’s character would also get a stern talking-to from station officials when she tried to swipe her card on her way out, the card reader having blocked her exit.

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Posted at 11:06 PM in movies, washington, dc

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Comments

Post staff writer Kathleen Cahill writes in Saturday’s paper about her Baltimore neighborhood serving as a stand-in for Georgetown in The Visiting. (“In Starring Roles” - 10/29/05)

The filming put some loose change into the pockets of many of my neighbors, anyway, and masquerading as Georgetown was a kick. In the movie as in real life, it was October, and Nicole (we saw her so often for those few days that we began to think of her on a first-name basis) would be taking her young movie son trick-or-treating. So our blocks were lavishly costumed with scary decorations, harvest vegetables and every chrysanthemum in Baltimore….

A larger, red brick house a couple of blocks away became the interior of Nicole’s house, and filming and prep work there took nearly a month. Its owners and their two children had to move out for part of that time, but it was worth it — they were paid something like $30,000 plus lodging expenses (they’d rather not say exactly)…

Ellen said it felt like a very short love affair: “The location manager is romancing you and telling you how much fun it is going to be and all about the improvements they’re going to make and how careful they’re going to be. Then the crew arrives, you sign the contract, you get out of the way. And you’re not going to meet Nicole Kidman.”

Posted by alykat on October 31, 2005 8:50 AM

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